Chapter 9

Breakdown & Sort

The dog circling the truck was still there before dawn.

According to Boram's notebook, it hadn't gone back to the crack once all night. The other four had gathered on the far side of the lot to sleep before sunrise, but that one stayed lying near the truck. Because of the diesel smell leaking from the cans underneath.

"We can't get the cans because of that dog. And if we kill that dog..."

Boram trailed off. Jeongwoo finished it for her.

"We get one more item."

The generator would run dry tonight. At the whiteboard, Jeongwoo drew the area outside the outbound dock. Shutter 2.

The water aisle they'd built yesterday.

The truck at the end of the aisle.

The aisle was still there. Walls a meter and a half on both sides, a meter and a half wide, five meters long. Open at the truck end, closed off by the shutter at the other.

"It's a sack."

Jeongwoo tapped the aisle with the marker.

"One way in, the other end's sealed. If the dog goes in, we just close the entrance."

"Why would the dog go in?"

Jeongwoo looked at Rajiv. Rajiv glanced toward the freezer warehouse, then nodded.

"Smell. Meat smell."

Rajiv thawed a chunk of Three-Eyed Hound meat. He even poured over it the broth left at the bottom of yesterday's pot. The smell was strong.

To the dog, it would smell like one of its own.

Whether that would draw it in or drive it off, nobody knew.

"F-rank monsters usually react to dead members of their own species. In games."

Boram said. She didn't sound sure.

"And in games, was that right?"

"...Fifty-fifty."

Jeongwoo said that was enough. Half was worth a shot.

If it didn't work, all they'd lose was one chunk of meat.

5:50 a.m. They raised the shutter just thirty centimeters. Pushed the chunk of meat through the gap.

On the aisle floor, right in front of the shutter.

Then they closed the shutter.

The five of them waited at the viewing window.

Ten minutes. Twenty.

The dog lying beside the truck raised its head. Lifted its nose.

Stood up.

The dog hesitated in front of the aisle entrance for a long time. Sniffed both walls. Scratched at them. Then, slowly, it came into the aisle.

Toward the meat.

One step. Two.

Halfway down the aisle.

"Not yet."

Jeongwoo said. He didn't know who he was saying it to.

The dog stopped in front of the meat. Bit into it.

"Now."

Mansik raised the shutter a meter. Jeongwoo ducked under it. He locked eyes with the dog in the aisle. Three meters away.

The dog froze, meat in its jaws.

Jeongwoo looked past the dog to the aisle entrance. Beside it, the water bundles left over from building the aisle.

"Leftover water. Location change. Aisle entrance, packed solid from the floor up."

【Location change request confirmed.】

The entrance was sealed. Another meter-and-a-half wall. The aisle was now a box closed on every side. One side was the shutter, and in the one-meter gap beneath that shutter was Jeongwoo.

The dog dropped the meat. Turned toward Jeongwoo.

"Hyung, drop it!"

The shutter started coming down. The dog leapt.

At the gap.

Jeongwoo threw himself backward. The shutter came down over the dog's head. The dog shoved its head into the gap. The bottom edge of the shutter caught it at the scruff. The shutter motor shrieked and stopped. The safety mechanism.

If something gets caught, it stops.

The dog's head was inside, under the shutter. Its teeth clacked twenty centimeters in front of Jeongwoo's shoe.

"Boss!"

Jeongwoo didn't look at the dog's head. He looked at the outbound dock floor inside the shutter. The one jerry can of diesel they'd brought in yesterday.

Twenty kilos.

"Jerry can. Location change. Shutter gap, floor."

The can flew over. Above the dog's head. It landed precisely between the bottom of the shutter and the dog's scruff. The weight of the shutter and the weight of the can bore down on the dog's neck together.

The dog screamed. Its claws raked the asphalt outside. For about thirty seconds.

Then it went quiet.

Jeongwoo waited until the dog was completely still. Then he raised the shutter a meter again. Brought the can back inside. The dog's body lay limp on the aisle floor.

"Rajiv."

Rajiv came over, knife in hand. Jeongwoo raised a hand.

"We said you'd call me before you picked up the knife."

Rajiv lowered the knife.

Jeongwoo stayed crouched under the shutter and looked at the dog in the aisle. It wasn't frozen this time. Gray hairless hide, three eyes, limp legs.

He thought of what he'd written on the whiteboard. Hide from the armpit grain, six cuts of meat along the fascia, bone, and the stone inside the ribs, left of the heart.

The sequence Rajiv had shown him over an hour and a half yesterday.

"Three-Eyed Hound ×1. Begin sorting. A-1 through A-4."

【New sorting criteria confirmed: Three-Eyed Hound (F)】

Another window appeared.

【[Tidy Up] has reached Lv. 3. New function: [Breakdown & Sort]】

The dog's body moved. Jeongwoo hadn't laid a finger on it.

Inside the armpit, the hide opened along the grain. No knife. The hide peeled off in one sheet and folded itself neatly in midair. The meat separated along the fascia into six chunks. The bones came away from the meat and stacked themselves in a pile. Last, a single blue stone rolled out from inside the ribs.

Three seconds.

Four piles sat side by side on the aisle floor. Hide, meat, bone, mana stone. Small letters floated in the air above each one.

A-1. A-2. A-3. A-4.

The outbound dock was silent.

Rajiv stood looking down at it, knife still in hand. For a long time.

"...Boss."

"Yeah."

"I did it one hour and half."

"Yeah."

"This is three seconds."

"...Sorry."

Rajiv shook his head. Then he laughed. Small at first, then big.

"No. My father would like it, if he saw. My father did not like the knife. His hands hurt."

Boram couldn't say anything. Clutching her notebook, she looked from the four piles to Jeongwoo and back. Finally she managed to speak.

"...Boss, I told you, didn't I? A hidden—"

"I keep telling you, it's not a game."

Jeongwoo looked past the aisle. Five jerry cans lined up under the truck. No dog circling them anymore.

"Five jerry cans. Location change. Inside the outbound dock, in front of the generator room."

The cans slid in along the aisle. A hundred liters. Two and a half days for the generator.

At lunch, a problem came up.

The mana stones. There were two low-grade mana stones in [Warehouse] now. One million won. Add the two hides and it was 1.6 million.

The manager stood in front of the whiteboard. He straightened his tie.

"Okay, I think we need to address this. These materials were obtained inside the center, with center equipment, using center inventory. Water, jerry cans, shutters. So in principle, as center assets—"

"Manager."

It was Mansik. He didn't even get up from his chair.

"When we got that dog, where were you, Manager."

"...Next to the shutter switch."

"Who pressed the button? Me."

The manager's mouth shut. Jeongwoo didn't get between them. Instead he opened the log to a fresh page and drew columns. Date, item, quantity, estimated value. And one more column at the far right.

Distribution.

"I'll record every material here. If we sell, the five of us split it evenly. The center equipment we used, we'll settle with head office later if it's still around. With your signature, Manager."

The manager made his calculating face for a moment. An even five-way split meant he got a share too. And with settle with head office in there, he'd have something to say later.

"...Good. Let's do that. I'll sign."

Mansik snorted. But he didn't object. Boram's eyes went round when she heard she'd get a share.

"Me too? I'm a part-timer."

"The part-timer counted dogs, didn't she?"

Rajiv nodded without a word. Jeongwoo drew one more circle in Rajiv's column. A separate share for the person who held the knife. That was the first special clause Jeongwoo wrote into this ledger.

That evening, Rajiv put the pot on again with the fresh meat. Same curry powder as yesterday, same jar of spices. But while stirring, Rajiv's hand stopped. He was staring at empty air. At something only Rajiv could see.

"Boss. My skill window changed."

"What's it say?"

Rajiv read it carefully, word by word.

"[Cooking]. Uses sorted ingredients. Effect: night vision, two hours."

☾